Aftermarket

Truckers' Wives Take to the Picket Line

The wives of four Yellow Freight System drivers have been picketing the company’s Atlanta truck terminal this week in protest over their husbands being on the road all the time.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that the wives aren’t complaining about pay, but claim that the Overland Park, Kan.-based trucking company routinely violates rules that require drivers be given time off after working six tours --- three round trips to a distant city --- within six days.The women said their husbands are required to work so many hours they are unable to make it home for personal reasons. They also voiced concern that the constant time pressures their husbands deal with probably cause them to be too tired to drive safely.Roger Dick, a Yellow spokesman, told the Constitution that drivers are not refused needed time off by the company. "We give drivers time off if they have a family emergency or a family situation," he said. "It doesn't even need to be an emergency."Dick also denied that Yellow's Atlanta drivers are denied "earned time off" after six tours. "Yellow Freight has the most flexible dispatch and call rules of anybody," he said.

Meritor has updated MeritorPartsXpress.com to improve search functionality for the company’s offering of 100,000 aftermarket products. The website also offers new self-service tools to help customers in North America.

In a perfect world, trucks would never break down. In the real world even the best-made trucks need to come in for service. When that happens, fleet managers want service to be completed quickly and efficiently.

Navistar has launched the Navistar Service Essentials program, a partnership aimed at helping qualified vocational-technical schools “prepare the next generation of truck and bus technicians,” according to the OEM.

Times are good everywhere in trucking and Chris Baer, president and CEO of Vipar Heavy Duty, confirmed that applies to the aftermarket segment as well in his remarks at the company’s annual conference.